Oxygen isotope and 26Al‐26Mg systematics of aluminum‐rich chondrules from unequilibrated enstatite chondrites

Abstract— Correlated in situ analyses of the oxygen and magnesium isotopic compositions of aluminum‐rich chondrules from unequilibrated enstatite chondrites were obtained using an ion microprobe. Among eleven aluminum‐rich chondrules and two plagioclase fragments measured for ²⁶Al‐²⁶Mg systematics, only one aluminum‐rich chondrule contains excess ²⁶Mg from the in situ decay of ²⁶Al; the inferred initial ratio (²⁶Al/²⁷Al)_o = (6.8 ± 2.4) × 10^?6 is consistent with ratios observed in chondrules from carbonaceous chondrites and unequilibrated ordinary chondrites. The oxygen isotopic compositions of five aluminum‐rich chondrules and one plagioclase fragment define a line of slope ?0.6 ± 0.1 on a three‐oxygen‐isotope diagram, overlapping the field defined by ferromagnesian chondrules in enstatite chondrites but extending to more ¹⁶O‐rich compositions with a range in δ¹⁸O of about ?12‰. Based on their oxygen isotopic compositions, aluminum‐rich chondrules in unequilibrated enstatite chondrites are probably genetically related to ferromagnesian chondrules and are not simple mixtures of materials from ferromagnesian chondrules and calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs). Relative to their counterparts from unequilibrated ordinary chondrites, aluminum‐rich chondrules from unequilibrated enstatite chondrites show a narrower oxygen isotopic range and much less resolvable excess ²⁶Mg from the in situ decay of ²⁶Al, probably resulting from higher degrees of equilibration and isotopic exchange during post‐crystallization metamorphism. However, the presence of ²⁶Al‐bearing chondrules within the primitive ordinary, carbonaceous, and now enstatite chondrites suggests that ²⁶Al was at least approximately homogeneously distributed across the chondrite‐forming region.     

Wine, regions and the geographic imperative: The Coonawarra example

Abstract:   The growth of the global wine trade has focused attention on regional origin in the production, marketing and consumption of wine. This paper presents a case study of the regulatory processes around the development of one particular South Australian wine region: Coonawarra. The process of the delineation of the Coonawarra region illustrates the tensions between treating wine regions as biophysical entities, and the realities of the economic, political, legal and cultural forces that shape regions. The paper highlights how ambiguities in the physical and social criteria that frame regional definition legislation can lead to boundaries that form through a process of judicial accretion rather than relating directly to any of the criteria themselves.     

Laboratory soil piping and internal erosion experiments: evaluation of a soil piping model for low‐compacted soils

Mechanistic models have been proposed for soil piping and internal erosion on well‐compacted levees and dams, but limited research has evaluated these models in less compacted (more erodible) soils typical of hillslopes and streambanks. This study utilized a soil box (50 cm long, 50 cm wide and 20 cm tall) to conduct constant‐head, soil pipe and internal erosion experiments for two soils (clay loam from Dry Creek and sandy loam from Cow Creek streambanks) packed at uniform bulk densities. Initial gravimetric moisture contents prior to packing were 10, 12 and 14% for Dry Creek soil and 8, 12, and 14% for Cow Creek soil. A 1‐cm diameter rod was placed horizontally along the length of the soil bed during packing and carefully removed after packing to create a continuous soil pipe. A constant head was maintained at the inflow end. Flow rates and sediment concentrations were measured from the pipe outlet. Replicate submerged jet erosion tests (JETs) were conducted to derive erodibility parameters for repacked samples at the same moisture contents. Flow rates from the box experiments were used to calibrate the mechanistic model. The influence of the initial moisture content was apparent, with some pipes (8% moisture content) expanding so fast that limited data was collected. The mechanistic model was able to estimate equivalent flow rates to those observed in the experiments, but had difficulty matching observed sediment concentrations when the pipes rapidly expanded. The JETs predicted similar erodibility coefficients compared to the mechanistic model for the more erodible cases but not for the less erodible cases (14% moisture content). Improved models are needed that better define the changing soil pipe cross‐section during supply‐ and transport‐limited internal erosion, especially for piping through lower compacted (more erodible) soils as opposed to more well‐compacted soils resulting from constructing levees and dams. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot: compactness condition and stability

Linear Rossby wave dispersion relationships suggest that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) is a baroclinic structure embedded in a barotropic shearing zonal flow. Quasi-geostrophic (QG) two-layer simulations support the theory, as long as an infinitely deep zonal flow is assumed. However, once a finite depth of the lower layer is assumed, a self-interaction of the baroclinic eddy component produces a barotropic radiating field, so that the GRS-like eddy can no longer remain compact. Compactness is recovered by explicitly introducing a deep dynamics of the interior for the lower layer, instead of the shallow QG formulation. An implication of the result is a strong coupling of the GRS to a convectively active interior.Paper presented to the NP Symposia of the 1991 Wiesbaden EGS Assembly on “Nonlinear processes in Geophysics”     

Wind effects on sub-tidal currents in Puget Sound

Wind effects on sub-tidal currents are studied using current meter records obtained at six moorings across the main basin of Puget Sound. High correlations between wind speeds and currents are found near the surface and at mid-depths of about 100 m. Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis applied to the axial currents in 1984 and 1985 shows that mode 1, containing over 60% of the variance, is highly correlated with wind speed even without any near surface current records. When near surface stratification is strong, direct wind effects are limited to the upper 30 m with counter currents in the lower layer indicating a baroclinic response. The transport in the lower layer almost balances the transport in the upper layer. When near surface stratification is weak, direct wind effects on currents can be detected to about 100 m. In this case, there is no clear and consistent depth at which one can separate the upper from the lower layer. Time series show that the acceleration in the surface layer initially increases in the same direction as the wind when the wind starts blowing, but it reaches a maximum, starts decreasing, and eventually changes to the opposite direction (decelerates) while the wind continues to blow in one direction. Results of a continuously stratified normal mode model and estimations from the observations suggest that friction at solid boundaries is a major cause of these phenomena. The model shows that modal currents of normal modes 2 and 3 are as important as mode 1, although the resultant vertical structure of total current shows a two-layer type pattern with only one zero crossing. The effect of the baroclinic pressure gradient is only apparent at low frequencies and among lower modes.     

H<Subscript>2</Subscript>O solubility in basalt at upper mantle conditions

This study presents a new experimental approach for determining H₂O solubility in basaltic melt at upper mantle conditions. Traditional solubility experiments are limited to pressures of ~600 MPa or less because it is difficult to reliably quench silicate melts containing greater than ~10 wt% dissolved H₂O. To overcome this limitation, our approach relies on the use of secondary ion mass spectrometry to measure the concentration of H dissolved in olivine and on using the measured H in olivine as a proxy for the concentration of H₂O in the co-existing basaltic melt. The solubility of H₂O in the melt is determined by performing a series of experiments at a single pressure and temperature with increasing amounts of liquid H₂O added to each charge. The point at which the concentration of H in the olivine first becomes independent of the amount of initial H₂O content of the charge (added + adsorbed H₂O) indicates its solubility in the melt. Experiments were conducted by packing basalt powder into a capsule fabricated from San Carlos olivine, which was then pressure-sealed inside a Ni outer capsule. Our experimental results indicate that at 1000 MPa and 1200 °C, the solubility of H₂O in basaltic melt is 20.6 ± 0.9 wt% (2 × standard deviation). This concentration is considerably higher than predicted by most solubility models but defines a linear relationship between H₂O fugacity and the square of molar H₂O solubility when combined with solubility data from lower pressure experiments. Further, our solubility determination agrees with melting point depression determined experimentally by Grove et al. (2006) for the H₂O-saturated peridotite solidus at 1000 MPa. Melting point depression calculations were used to estimate H₂O solubility in basalt along the experimentally determined H₂O-saturated peridotite solidus. The results suggest that a linear relationship between H₂O fugacity and the square of molar solubility exists up to ~1300 MPa, where there is an inflection point and solubility begins to increase less strongly with increasing H₂O fugacity.     

Simple applications of McWilliams' “A note on a consistent quasigeostrophic model in a multiply connected domain”

We have solved several linear quasigeostrophic problems in singly and multiply connected domains to illustrate the use and effects of correct boundary conditions which balance circulation changes with forcing along each boundary. The results with these boundary conditions differ markedly from those obtained by setting the streamfunction to zero on the walls either when the fluid is forced by a time-dependent wind stress curl or when the fluid oscillates in a free basin mode in a domain which contains interior islands.     

Theoretical estimates of the westward drift

Virtually all dynamo models may be expected to give rise to a permanent differential rotation between mantle and core. Weak conductivity in the mantle permits small leakage currents which couple to the radial component of the magnetic field, producing a Lorentz torque. Mechanical equilibrium is achieved when a zero net torque is established at a critical rotation rate. An estimate of the drift is determined easily given the magnetic field structure predicted by any dynamo model. The result for the drift rate at the core-mantle interface along the equator is given by the product of three factors

$\text{U}{}_{\mathrm{\phi 1}}\text{=U}{}_{\mathrm{\phi }}\text{R}\text{λ}{}_{\mathrm{*}}\text{L}{}_{\mathrm{*}}$

The first of these is a geometrical factor which depends only on the structural character of the field. For a variety of model fields, this factor ranges from 16 to 35. The second factor is the ratio of r.m.s. toroidal to poloidal field. This ratio is an (implicitly) adjustable parameter of both α² and α-ω dynamos, and is a measure of the relative efficiency of the generation process for each component. The third (dimensional) term is the ratio of core magnetic diffusivity to core radius, 10^?4 cm s^?1.The result is essentially independent of the value of mantle diffusivity and its effective depth. The sign of the result may be positive or negative. For α² dynamos a westward drift is produced by choosing α > 0 in the Northern Hemisphere, which constitutes a dynamical assertion about the dynamo process. For an r.m.s. toroidal field of the order of 15 Gs, based on fairly general considerations, a drift rate comparable to observation is expected.